Bethesda's released Skyrim on 8 platforms but left Fallout RPGs idle, so players turn to popular mods for TV show nods, graphical boosts, bug fixes, and more content

Apr. 24, 2024



Modders are always coming up with new ways to improve the Fallout games

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Fallout fans new and old have beendiving into the RPG series en massesince the release of thelive-action Amazon Prime show, with player counts for everything from Fallout 4, New Vegas, and even the initially divisive Fallout 76 skyrocketing. This has simultaneously seen rise to ahuge uptick in downloads for Fallout mods, contributing to popular mod site Nexus Mods dishing out 6,300 TB worth of downloads last weekend.

There’s good reason for this, though, as there are some fantastic mods out there to spice up and improve your experience with the RPGs – something very needed when you consider how little post-release attention most of them have been given by Bethesda despite its seemingly constant string of Skyrim re-releases. In fact, a plethora of new Fallout 4, 3, and New Vegas mods have been created in the last month, and released to immediate popularity.

Some of these, as you might expect, are TV show-themed. For example, one created by userdragxnflare adds The Ghoul’s gunas a weapon in Fallout 3, which uses shotgun shells and has a mag capacity of just one, but high damage to balance it out. Otherwise, if you want to spice up your wardrobe, you could use userQwibQwib’s mod to add Lucy’s Vault-Tec backpackinto Fallout 4.

If you’re a veteran fan revisiting the RPGs for the first time in a while, you might be interested in some of the mods that serve to add fresh content. For example, Fallout: New Vegas players can now downloadNova Arizona – A Legion Lands Expansion, which describes itself as a “lore-friendly expansion covering the land east of the Colorado River and the people living there.” This is still in beta, mind you, and while the outside spaces are almost fully complete, the mod team is still working on adding more NPC dialogue and quests.

Meanwhile in Fallout 4, a mod calledAttack of the Lobotomites by The Bone Zone Teamadds a new quest along with a fresh dungeon, complete with voiced NPCs, a selection of weapons, armor, and more. You can even enhance the Fallout 4 experience further withbp42s' popular Karma mod, which adds “a fully fledged, integrated, and polished version of Fallout 3/New Vegas’s Karma system.”

Other mods, meanwhile, can fix bugs and even upgrade the visuals of the games. While not a new release, theUpdated Unofficial Fallout 3 Patchmod does exactly as its name suggests, and fixes errors and bugs in Fallout 3 and its DLC. You can also find loads of retexture mods, like theNew Vegas Marvelous Mirrorsmod, which “makes all those broken mirrors look less awful.”

There are so many mods out there that it’s well worth browsing through them yourself if you’re planning on playing any of the Fallout RPGs any time soon, although you should always be careful when downloading files online. For Fallout 4 fans, it’s also worth keeping in mind that thehighly anticipated free next-gen upgradeis arriving on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S tomorrow, which will boost frame rate on consoles and add widescreen support on PC, amongst other things.

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If you’re looking for something new to play, be sure to check out our ranking of thebest Fallout games.

I’m one of GamesRadar+’s news writers, who works alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield’s student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming’s news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you’re sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.

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